PROCEEDINGS 



AUGUMTION OF THE BUILDING 



DEPARTMENTS OF ARTS AND OF SCIENCE, 



UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



LVHSHC 




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PROCEEDINGS 

AT THE 

PUBLIC INAUGURATION 

OF THE 

BUILDING ERECTED FOR THE 

DEPARTMENTS OF ARTS AND OF SCIENCE, 

October II, 1872. 

WITH THE 

ADDRESSES MADE ON THE MORNING AND EVENING OF THAT DAY: 



TO WHICH IS ADDED 



A MEMORIAL NOTICE 



Professor JOHN F. FRAZER, LL.D. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
COLLINS, PRINTER, T05 JAYNE STREET. 

18T2. 



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NOV 1 * 



INTRODUCTION. 



The Trustees of the University confided to the Build- 
ing Committee the arrangements for the formal delivery 
of the new College Buildine; to the Faculties of the 
Departments of Arts and of Science. 

The Committee, impressed with the importance of the 
objects sought to be accomplished by the improved and 
enlarged organization of the Institution, made such 
preparations as would provide an imposing public cere- 
monial in which the Trustees, the Faculties, and the 
Alumni should take prominent parts. This ceremonial 
occupied the morning of the 11th of October, and was 
honored with the presence of a large and highly re- 
spectable audience. In the evening a social gathering 
was held, at which representatives from several of the 
sister colleges and universities of the country were pre- 
sent, as well as citizens of various professions and busi- 
ness pursuits, who came together to discuss in an in- 
formal way the progress which the cause of liberal 
education was making in this country, and to encourage 
each other in the good work. 

On Saturday the building was thrown open for the 
inspection of the public generally, and thus the Com- 
mittee endeavored to fulfil the object of their special 
appointment. 

It was deemed important that the history of the cere- 
monies should be fully reported and printed, and, in 
making up such a record, it has been thought best that 



The building erected by the Trustees of the 
University of Pennsylvania on Locust Street 
between Thirty-fourth and Thirty-sixth Streets, 
designed for the accommodation of the Depart- 
ments of Arts and of Science, was opened for the 
reception of students at the beginning of the 
College year, September 16, 1872. It was hoped 
that the preparations made for their instruction 
in both Departments would then be fully com- 
pleted, but it was found, that, notwithstanding 
the great efforts which had been made, the labora- 
tories, the museums, the library, and some of the 
other rooms were not entirely fitted up and fur- 
nished by that time. The formal inauguration 
or dedication of the building was therefore post- 
poned until Friday, October 11, 1872. On that 
day the Trustees invited many prominent gentle- 
men of this city and distinguished strangers to 



be present at the opening ceremonies. It was a 
matter of regret that so many of the officers of 
foreign Colleges who had been invited were pre- 
vented from attending by the pressure of official 
duties at home. The Trustees were honored, 
however, by the presence of Henry Coppee, 
LL.D., President of Lehigh University, of the 
Eev. Dr. E. ]ST. Potter, President of Union Col- 
lege, Schenectady, and of the Eev. Dr. Shields, 
representing the Faculty of the College of Mew 
Jersey, at Princeton. A procession was formed 
in the Library, composed of those who were to 
take part in the proceedings, together with the 
officers of foreign Colleges, the Board of Trus- 
tees, the different Faculties of the University, 
the special guests of the Trustees, and the 
Alumni, and moved at one o'clock to the Chapel, 
where seats had been reserved for them. The 
remainder of the Chapel was crowded by the 
friends of the Professors and students, among 
whom were many ladies. 

The Provost then announced that Eight 
Eev. Bishop Stevens would invoke the bless- 
ing of Almighty God. 

Bishop Stevens then offered the following 
Prayer : — 



THE PRAYER. 

Almighty and Everlasting God, the fountain 
of all goodness, we adore thee as the One living 
and true God, infinite in all thine attributes and 
perfections, and worthy of the humble worship of 
all created beings. To thee all Angels cry aloud ; 
the Heavens and all the powers therein. To thee 
Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry, Holy, 
Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabbaoth, Heaven and 
Earth are full of the majesty of thy glory. The 
glorious company of the Apostles praise thee; 
the goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise 
thee. The noble army of Martyrs praise thee. 
The Holy Church throughout all the world doth 
acknowledge thee, the Father Everlasting. 

We come before thee to ask thy blessing upon 
this University. May it be a fountain of sound 
wisdom and learning, wherein many generations 
of youthful minds shall be nurtured and disci- 
plined in all wholesome science, literature, and art. 
Grant unto the Trustees the spirit of wise govern- 
ance in the fulfilment of their trust. Be with 
thy servant the Provost ; direct and strengthen 
him as the executive head of this institution ; 
enlighten him as an instructor ; make him judi- 
cious as a counsellor ; and make him the friend 
and the guide of the youth committed to his care. 
Give to all the officers fidelity and zeal, dili- 
gence and prudence, firmness and patience in 



10 

the performance of their several duties. Let 
also the riches of thy grace and goodness de- 
scend upon all the students who shall resort 
hither. May they improve with careful diligence 
the great opportunities of mental culture here 
ftfrnished, and be preserved from all error, vice, 
and immorality, and by thy Holy Spirit be effectu- 
ally restrained from sin and excited to duty ; and, 
as they are set in the midst of so many and great 
dangers that by reason of the frailty of their 
natures they cannot always stand upright, grant 
them such strength and protection as may sup- 
port them in all dangers, and carry them through 
all temptations, and finally bring them into thy 
Heavenly Kingdom. These things, O Heavenly 
Father, and whatever else thou shalt see neces- 
sary and convenient to us, we humbly beg 
through the merits and mediation of thy Son 
Jesus Christ our Lord. To whom with thee and 
the Holy Ghost be all honor and glory, world 
without end. Amex. 



11 



ADDRESS OF WILLIAM SELLERS, Esq., 

Chairman of the Building Committee. 

Ladies and Gentlemen: — 

"We have assembled here to-day to deliver to 
the Faculties of the Department of Arts and of 
the new Department of Science of the University 
of Pennsylvania, a building designed for their 
use; commenced when it was at least doubtful 
whether our means would justify the necessary 
expenditure, but in compliance with an urgent 
demand for increased accommodation. This de- 
mand could not be neglected, as the requirement 
for enlarged courses of instruction was forcing 
our youth to distant colleges, whilst the field in 
which the knowledge sought could be best ob- 
tained, and, when acquired, could be best utilized, 
was at our very doors. 

The first step in this work is now happily ac- 
complished ; others, and most important ones, yet 
remain to be taken; but before entering upon 
these it may be well to note the events which 
have led us to this result, that if possible we may 
find encouragement for the work yet before us. 

The preliminary movement, which has shown 
its first fruits in the building now before us, was 
taken at a meeting of the Board of Trustees held 
January 1, 1867, when a report was presented 
from a special committee, previously appointed, 



12 

to consider certain changes in the course of in- 
struction in the Department of Arts. This re- 
port, after considering the condition of the De- 
partment, called attention to the great need of 
placing the Department of Agriculture, Arts, 
Mines, and Manufactures (the work in which had 
long been suspended) on a proper basis, and re- 
commended that a committee should be appointed 
to solicit contributions to a new endowment, to 
enable the board to enlarge the instruction given 
in the Department of Arts, and also to reorgan- 
ize the Department of Agriculture, Arts, Mines, 
and Manufactures. This recommendation was 
adopted, and a committee appointed. On the 6th 
of June, 1868, a resolution was passed by the 
Board of Trustees, requesting the Committee on 
endowment to inquire into the expediency of re- 
moving the University from its site in Ninth 
Street, and to report where a desirable location 
could be found. 

On the 8th of October, 1868, the Committee 
presented an elaborate report, recommending the 
removal, and the purchase, if possible, of a por- 
tion of what was known as the Almshouse farm, 
in "West Philadelphia. 

On the 27th of October, 1868, the Board ap- 
pointed a Committee for the purpose of nego- 
tiating with the city of Philadelphia for the 
purchase of from thirty to fifty acres of land in 
West Philadelphia, part of the property occupied 
as a farm for the city Almshouse. This com- 



13 

mittee consisted of Messrs. Fraley, McCall, Lex, 
Dr. Norris, Cresson, Welsh, and Judge Strong. 

On the 4th of January, 1870, the Committee 
reported that after a protracted negotiation with 
the city authorities, they had obtained the pas- 
sage of an ordinance whereby the city sold to 
the Trustees of the University a piece of ground 
(the present site) in West Philadelphia, contain- 
ing ten and a quarter acres, for eight thousand 
dollars per acre, and on the same day the Board 
passed resolutions ratifying the purchase. On 
the 21st day of May, 1870, the deed to the Trus- 
tees was duly executed by the Mayor of the city, 
Hon. D. M. Fox, and the consideration money, 
$82,184, paid. This amount was raised partly 
by mortgage and partly by applying to the same 
purpose the loans of the United States and the 
city of Philadelphia, held by the Trustees. 

On the 1st of March, 1870, the Committee on 
the Department of Agriculture, Arts, Mines, 
and Manufactures was requested to report to the 
Board a plan for the improvement of the ground. 
This Committee called to their aid the instructor 
of drawing in the University, Mr. T. W. Richards, 
and on the 3d day of May, 1870, laid before the 
Board the general features of a plan for the new 
University building, which would secure ample 
accommodations for both the Departments of 
Arts and the Department of Science. On the 
10th day of May, the general features of the 
plans presented were approved by the Board, and 
referred back to the Committee for completion. 



14 

On the 25th of May, at the request of the Com- 
mittee, the Board reconsidered its resolutions 
approving the plans, and resolved to authorize 
the Committee to invite plans, specifications, and 
estimates from the architects of this city. A 
prize of $800 was offered to the first in merit, 
$400 to the second, and $300 to the third. 

On the 20th of September, the Committee pre- 
sented plans to the Board from Mr. "Windrim and 
Mr. Richards, both of such merit that the Board 
resolved to divide the first and second premiums 
equally between them. Mr. T. "W. Richards was 
at this meeting elected the architect. 

As neither plan exactly met the views of the 
Committee and the Board, they were at this 
meeting referred back to the Committee to report 
a revised plan, accompanied by proposals from 
contractors for the completion of the same. 

Under the supervision of the Committee, Mr. 
Richards proceeded to prepare a revised plan; 
and on the 28th of February, 1871, it was laid 
before the Board, together with the proposals 
and estimates of thirteen contractors. 

The Board resolved to adopt the plan, and 
awarded the contract to Messrs. "Wm. Struthers 
& Sons, for the sum of $231,900, the building to 
be completed by the 1st of August, 1872. 

Of the manner in which the architect has exe- 
cuted his work as an artist, you to-day can form 
your own opinion ; but of his energy, devotion, 
and conscientiousness, which have contributed 
so much to the general result, the members of the 



15 

Committee who have been in constant inter- 
course with him are the best, as they are the 
most willing, witnesses. 

At the meeting of the Board held March 7th, 
1871, a Building Committee was appointed, con- 
sisting of Messrs. Sellers, Cresson, Fraley, Henry, 
Welsh, Browne, and Merrick; and on the 15th 
of June, 1871, the corner stone of the new build- 
ing was laid with appropriate ceremonies. On 
the 17th of September, 1872, the building as it 
now stands was accepted by the Committee from 
the contractor, and the work of completing the 
furnishing for its intended purpose has been for- 
warded as rapidly as possible, under the super- 
vision of the architect. During the construc- 
tion it was found necessary to make certain 
additions amounting to $4010 T 4 o 6 Tr ; so that the 
cost of the entire building, exclusive of the 
special fittings required for the different labora- 
tories, museums, cabinets, and the furniture, has 
been $235,910^. 

The design of the building is what is known 
as Collegiate Grothic. The structure consists of 
a main central building, with connecting eastern 
and western wings, which are completed by 
towers. 

The front is on Locust Street, and extends 
254 feet in length, by a depth of 102 feet 2 
inches. These measurements are exclusive of 
towers, bay windows, buttresses, &c. By the 
projection of the central building there is an ad- 
dition to the depth at that point of 21 feet 10 



16 

inches; the whole depth at the centre being 124 
feet. The western wing has been arranged for 
the use of the Department of Arts, the eastern 
for that of the Department of Science, whilst 
certain portions of the centre building are in- 
tended for the common use of both departments, 
such as the Chapel, Library, Assembly-room, &c. 
Beside these, the building contains sixteen rooms, 
devoted to instruction in Chemistry and its appli- 
cations, four to Physics, six to Geology and Min- 
ing, four to Civil and Mechanical Engineering, 
three to Drawing, three to Mathematics, one each 
to English Literature, History, Intellectual and 
Moral Philosophy, Greek, Latin, French, Ger- 
man, Rhetoric, and Oratory. The Laboratories 
have been fitted up with the most complete 
modern apparatus and models; museums and 
other approved means of illustration have been 
abundantly provided. 

The object of the Trustees has been to con- 
struct a building which would give the largest 
and most convenient accommodation for the pur- 
poses of instruction in both departments. Ac- 
cording to the present system of instruction in 
the Application of Science to the Arts, a large 
number of rooms is required to illustrate fully 
the various processes ; and the Committee have 
not hesitated for such purposes to provide accom- 
modations which they believe are as ample as 
those to be found in any similar institution in 
this country. Such arrangements are necessarily 



17 

costly, but the constant desire of the Trustees 
has been to do this work thoroughly and well. 

"While such extensive arrangements have been 
made for instruction in the new Department of 
Science, the Committee has not neglected the 
claims of the other department, the oldest in the 
University, that of Arts. Large recitation and 
lecture-rooms, well-lighted and ventilated, have 
been provided for the classes who attend the in- 
struction given by the professors in this Depart- 
ment. All that has been done has been under- 
taken with a view of affording to young men the 
best opportunity of receiving the highest train- 
ing in the various branches of a liberal education. 

In order to carry out fully the intentions of 
the Trustees, the older department has been im- 
proved, enlarged, and rendered more efficient ; 
while a system of instruction has been carefully 
matured for the new, based upon the experience 
of the most successful schools of science in the 
country, and differing in some respects from any. 
To insure the success of all our plans, gentlemen 
of the highest reputation as men of science have 
been selected as professors in the new school, and 
they are now giving their zealous co-operation in 
completing our work. 

But something more is needed besides a com- 
modious building and a learned and zealous body 
of professors. The expenditure of money, where 
preparations have been made upon so liberal a 
scale, must necessarily be large. The funds re- 
quired for the erection and furnishing of the 



18 

building were obtained by creating a mortgage 
of $300,000 upon all the property of the Univer- 
sity. It was expected that this debt would' be 
discharged whenever the Ninth Street property 
could be disposed of, and it is believed this will 
be accomplished at an early day. It was hoped 
that the largely increased expenditure which the 
new course of instruction will entail upon us 
would be supplied by our endowment fund, but I 
regret to say this is not yet what we had hoped 
for ; we feel assured, however, that, having now 
provided ample accommodations and large facili- 
ties for instruction, the necessary means for car- 
rying on our work in a liberal manner will not be 
withheld. 

And now, Mr. Provost and gentlemen of the 
faculties, I hand over our work to your care and 
use, and, in so doing, permit me to thank you for 
the assistance you have thus far rendered us, and 
to promise for you, in advance, the thanks of all 
men, as the importance of your labors and the 
zeal with which you discharge your duties be- 
come apparent to them. 



19 



PKOVOST'S ADDRESS. 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen 

of the Board of Trustees : — 

The Faculties of the Department of Arts and 
of the Department of Science desire to join most 
heartily in the congratulations which are so fit- 
ting on this auspicious occasion. What has been 
to many of us a long-cherished dream has at last 
assumed the shape of a living, actual reality. 

To-day we come before the world with the 
formal announcement that we have here at last a 
true University, complete in all its parts, in 
which men may receive in all the various depart- 
ments of human knowledge that training and 
liberal culture which shall fit them to be the 
leaders and guides of their fellow-men. Such 
an event is not only memorable in the history of 
the University, but it is also one, if rightly ap- 
prehended, of great significance in the history of 
the community in which we live. For, if it be 
true that we have here and now a University able 
and ready to do the work which such an institu- 
tion should do, and the people of Philadelphia 
are fully impressed with that belief, then, indeed, 
it is not easy to exaggerate the importance of 
the event, or over-estimate the far-reaching re- 
sults of what has been done, to us and to those 
who are to come after us. 



20 

The work of which we celebrate to-day the 
completion was begun, gentlemen, by your pre- 
decessors one hundred and seventeen years ago, 
for the germ which your labors have developed 
is found in the plan of the " College or Seminary 
of Universal Learning," chartered in 1755. In 
its earlier years, as was natural, the fruit borne 
by the tree which sprang from that germ was not 
very abundant, but, such as it was, it was the 
choicest then grown on American soil. 

In 1765, that illustrious body, the Medical 
Faculty of the University — illustrious from the 
fame of its founders and teachers, and illustrious 
from the great number of eminent men who, for 
more than a century, have received their earliest 
professional training from it — was organized. 
Still later, in 1789, the trustees, keeping in full 
view the University idea, established another 
learned Faculty, that of the Law Department. 
It needed but one more link to complete the 
circle of the human sciences (for with Theology, 
Scientia divina, our charter forbade us to inter- 
meddle), and that was a department in which 
the sciences of nature should be taught in their 
applications to the arts of life. The organization 
of such a department has seemed to you not 
only the natural outgrowth of the true Univer- 
sity principle, but as eminently fitting for the 
needs of the times. 

We celebrate to-day not merely your fulfil- 
ment of the promise held out by our earliest 
charter, but, when you dedicate this noble build- 



21 

ing to the use of the two Faculties, we gladly 
hail it as the strongest proof of the earnestness 
of your desire, that that promise shall be kept in 
the largest and most liberal way. "What has 
been done in the erection of this building to aid 
us to make our work here true, and real, and 
fruitful, each one who hears me to-day may 
judge for himself. 

My colleagues and myself know something of 
the unwearied zeal and devotion you have brought 
to the accomplishment of this task. "We know 
that you have given us here convenient means of 
instruction unsurpassed anywhere in this coun- 
try. "We know that you have been in constant 
and active sympathy with all our needs, and our 
hearts gratefully respond to all that has been 
done for us. We are fully sensible that the 
hopes which you cherish for the success of your 
great enterprise rest mainly on your firm belief, 
that we, who are the teachers here, are imbued 
with something of your own earnestness and en- 
thusiasm. You have rightly judged; we shall 
help you to reap the rew r ard you seek — the only 
possible reward for such unselfish toil — the con- 
sciousness that those for whose sake it has all 
been done are enjoying fully the fruit of your 
labors. 

We accept, then, the trust which you have im- 
posed upon us, and which you have given us such 
ample means of executing. To these stately 
halls an unexpectedly large number of young 
men, attracted by what you have done for them, 



22 

have already come; and there is no reason to* 
doubt that an increasing number will follow them 
when it is known how liberally you have pro- 
vided for an ever-increasing need. Be it ours to 
train these young men in a knowledge and love 
of Truth, of Eight, and of Duty. Let us not 
merely unfold to them the mysteries of nature, 
but let us teach them something of that grand 
central figure in nature's realm, of man, his capa- 
cities, his history, his responsibilities, his destiny, 
that so they may be led to attain to that higher 
knowledge concerning the power and beneficence 
of the Almighty Being by whom and in whom 
both nature and man live, and move, and have 
their being. Thus shall we best complete the 
work which you have begun, and erect the most 
enduring monument to commemorate your labors. 



W- 



23 



ADDRESS OF PKOEESSOR LESLEY, 

Dean of the Faculty of the Department of Science. 

Gentlemen of the Board of Trustees: — 

Whatever is good and beautiful is worthy of 
respect and affection without comparison; and 
the good and beautiful are of all ages, the com- 
mon property of mankind, of common origin, 
and harmonious. Philosophy, Belles-lettres, and 
Physical Science have always been fruit of the 
same tree. To observe, to speculate, to experi- 
ment, and to construct are cognate and coequal 
faculties of mind. In the dim dawn of history 
we discern their complicated phenomena. ~No 
man was ever more practical than Confucius the 
father of Chinese letters. Medicine, Chemistry, 
Architecture, Dentistry, Mining, Engineering, 
and Metallurgy nourished in Egypt under the 
influence of the most elaborate ritual of religion, 
while Pentaour was inscribing his immortal poem 
on the walls of Carnac. Greece was not more 
glorified by Socrates, Plato, and Herodotus, than 
by Aristotle, Anaximander, Democritus, and the 
physicists who made collections of fossils, and 
engineers who mined the lead veins of Laurinm. 
Poetry, history, chemistry, and the principles of 
the mechanic arts flourished equally and together 
under the califfs of Bagdad and the sheriffs of 
Cordova. And when the long and slow proces- 



24 

sion of human knowledge reached western and 
northern Europe, gathering in its march the trea- 
sures of fifty centuries to deposit them in univer- 
sities and museums, the laboratories and factories 
of the modern Christian world, they were carried 
together by the same beasts of burden, and guided 
by the same pioneers. In distributing the prizes 
of renown, what judge could decide between 
the merits of Paracelsus and Palissy, between 
Boehme and Boerhaave ; between Reuchlin and 
Erasmus on one hand, and Yerulam, Da Yinci, 
Buonarotti, and Yasari on the other ? Are not 
the noblest men of our own day equally brilliant 
for imagination and science ; for the wisdom of 
practical life, and that love of fair expression 
which makes the artist and the scholar? The 
world is mature; it feels its constitutional 
powers ; it pants for action ; it devises and exe- 
cutes a thousand monuments ; it criticises nature, 
subjects the elements, demands service and use 
of all things, inspires matter with its own ideas, 
and sets the surface of the earth to rights for the 
comfort and convenience of all. This is its sci- 
ence. These are its physical sciences. 

But does the manly time forget its boyhood's 
days ? When was ever so much loving thought 
bestowed on the records of bygone times? 
Christendom resounds with poetry. The nine- 
teenth century sings at its work. The old the- 
ology is as fresh and dear as ever to human 
hearts. Homer and Yirgil can never be sup- 
planted by Tennyson, Whittier, Lowell, and Long- 



25 

fellow. More scholars now busy themselves with 
the ancient languages than in any former age, 
and translations of the choicest literature of India 
and China are added to gratify the classical taste 
of an age most wrongfully accused of forgetting 
its old sweet joys to smother its soul in a slough 
of gross materialism. This age of new-born 
sciences is also an age of philosophies born again. 
That apparent opposition to science, of which we 
sometimes hear complaints, is neither more nor 
less than the inextinguishable affection of the 
intellect of our race for all noble thinking, for ail 
exquisite expression, for the ideal and the abso- 
lute outside the limits of experimental demon- 
stration. Darwinism itself is but an unconscious 
inward reaction against the supremacy of the 
microscope of the naturalist and the chemist's 
scales. After all our nomenclatures have been 
formulated; after all the laws of nature have 
been proved by facts, fresh outbursts of the 
heart of the scholar astonish the sciences, and 
the deep fires of aesthetic sentiment are seen pre- 
serving their activity. Men will always be poets. 
The University will never abandon its " humani- 
ties." ]STo incomings of physical science can 
exile or dethrone learning. But as by the varied 
immigrations to this new world a higher composite 
society obtains existence, so the harmonious in- 
terfusion of learning and science lifts the modern 
University into a region of thought, sentiment, 
and power above all that former ages have 
thought possible. 



26 

Gentlemen, in enlarging the instruction of this 
institution, you have obeyed the wish of the times. 
In doubling the range of its curriculum you have 
placed it in harmony with the spirit of education 
elsewhere ; you have answered a lawful call of 
this large city, and of the State to which we owe 
allegiance. Nor have you moved in the matter 
a day too soon. The want of an adequate and 
efficient apparatus for training the young scienti- 
fically for business, as chemists, architects, en- 
gineers, geologists, metallurgists, superintendents 
of transportation, inventors, and discoverers of 
new forces and applicable powers in the material 
world, here in Philadelphia, has been emphasized 
already by the conspicuous success of our Hew 
Department of Science. You cannot go back; 
the ships have been burnt ; the enterprise must 
be pursued greatly ; all eyes are already watch- 
ing your progress. 

This is no new idea, however, but only a fresh 
effort to realize the original thoughts of the 
founders of this University. Philadelphia for 
many years has been the acknowledged principal 
centre of physical science in America. From 
the time of Franklin, names of distinction have 
been connected with its name ; some of them, 
like Rittenhouse, Ewing, Smith, Bache, and Hare, 
were connected personally with the University. 
The principles of physical science have always 
been taught within its walls. Before the break- 
ing out of the late war, a special course of scien- 
tific instruction was provided for those students 



27 



who wished to fit themselves for the practical 
arts. But no adequate accommodations could be 
furnished for the purpose in the now deserted 
building in ISTinth Street. 

Here a new and finer career is offered. "We 
have to thank the generous enthusiasm of en- 
lightened citizens and the persevering courage of 
the Board of Trustees for making that possible 
which has been a long-cherished dream of the 
Alumni of our venerable college. Now, at last, 
we have room to work. Five chemical labora- 
tories have been given to us. Two museums are 
provided for the students' use, with 15,000 choice 
specimens of minerals and fossils. We have 
already begun to organize collections of building 
stones, coals, ores, furnace products, whatever 
can illustrate work in the field, in the furnace, 
and in the mine. We are provided with rooms 
for drawing, for the construction of model build- 
ings and machinery, and the processes of metal- 
lurgy. 

It is true that months of labor are still de- 
manded for bringing this equipment to its high- 
est efficiency, and we need a hundred thousand 
dollars more to supplement it with a working 
physical laboratory, and a complete museum of 
comparative zoology and American palaeonto- 
logy, such as is ready to be furnished on call from 
the great collections of James Hall, as well as to 
endow chairs of fossil botany and zoology, of 
railroad transportation, etc., to make our faculty 
complete. But the pride and sagacity of the 



business men of Philadelphia may be relied on 
not to stop short of the ideal perfection of so im- 
portant an instrumentality for the prosperity of 
the city. 

Gentlemen, none in our age needs to be re- 
minded that while the acts of duty are fugitive, 
their consequences penetrate time to the remotest 
limits. How exalted then should be our views ! 
how far-reaching our plans ! how wide and deep 
our comprehension of the useful, and how abso- 
lute our personal loyalty to the happy and honora- 
ble responsibilities of the times in which God 
casts our lot ! Among the monuments our fathers 
built, this University is one ; and so long as it 
can grow, like a royal palace of the middle ages, 
by the commodious and splendid additions of 
successive dynasties, we also may partake in the 
work of our fathers, and, like them, be benefac- 
tors of posterity. 



29 



Ho^r. James K. Ludlow, LL.D., then made 
the presentation of the Memorial "Windows and 
Portraits to the Trustees, and in doing so said : — 

Gentlemen of the Board of Trustees: — 

Auspicious was that day upon which the Trus- 
tees of the University of Pennsylvania deter- 
mined to erect this building. With wise fore- 
thought they selected this spot, and the City 
Councils, with a liberality which will always be 
commended, agreed to sell this tract of land to 
this institution upon most liberal terms. As if 
by magic the walls of this beautiful edifice have 
been reared, and now it stands an ornament to 
the city, and to be dedicated to the cause of en- 
lightened education. Massive as is this struc- 
ture, something more had to be accomplished. 
To be complete, its history, in part at least, must 
be written upon its walls ; this the friends of the 
institution determined to do, and that work has 
also been completed. The thought was a happy 
one, for among the living you may look for the re- 
production of the scenes and men of the past, not 
only upon the printed page, but also on canvass, 
in marble, and other works of art. Here, and at 
a glance, shall the visitor learn of the past, as it 
is inseparably connected with this institution. 
Here, as the eye falls upon each window or upon 
the walls of the building, the mind will instinc- 



30 

tively revert to other days ; a familiar name or 
form suggests at once, not only the actor but that 
which he accomplished, and thus, by the well- 
known law of association, history shall be again 
written as it is connected with this institution. 

In the brief time allotted to me for the prepa- 
ration of this discourse, I can do little more than 
present to you a sketch of the men whose por- 
traits adorn these walls, of the meaning of these 
memorial windows, and of the deeds which are 
here perpetuated. 

The subject will be treated in its historical and 
chronological order. 

And first of all let us turn to the Franklin 
memorial window — the gift of the Alumni of the 
institution, in honor of the founder of the College 
of Philadelphia. 

Here and now it is only necessary to mention 
the name of Benjamin Franklin. "Who he was, 
and what he did for science, for his country, and 
for the world is known to every boy in the land. 
What did he do for us is the point to which we 
shall direct your attention. 

In 1749, by the direct efforts of this illustrious 
man, his friends subscribed £800 for the endow- 
ment of an academy. A building had been 
erected in Fourth Street below Arch ; it was used 
for the school, and it stood until very recently, 
when it was removed, and in its place the pre- 
sent structure was built. 

How well many of you, with the speaker, re- 
member the old Academy; there we received our 



31 

earliest education, and if we did not always re- 
joice to enter its walls, it was not because its 
earliest history was not dear to us. 

In the year 1755, a charter was granted for the 
" College, Academy, and Charity School of Phi- 
ladelphia." An examination will establish the 
fact that this institution was the sixth in order 
of age of all the colleges in the United States, 
"William and Mary, Harvard, Yale, King's (now 
Columbia), at New York, and Princeton being 
the only seniors. Franklin was not only a Trus- 
tee until 1790, the year of his death, but when in 
the country devoted his time, his talents, and his 
energies to this institution. Even the early re- 
cord books yet remain in his handwriting as 
Secretary of the College. Look upon that por- 
trait and behold your earliest benefactor and 
friend. What a flood of history pours in upon 
us from that memorial window ! 

See how upon the left hand the artist has re- 
produced the past with its wonderful story. 

There is the coat of arms of the Penn family, 
by whom the first charter was granted, a represen- 
tation of the devastation produced by lightning, 
and, last of all, a picture of the hand-press used 
by Franklin in London. 

]STow gaze upon the right-hand side of the 
window, and the present is before you. 

There is the coat of arms of the Common- 
wealth of Pennsylvania, by which the present 
charter was granted. 

Look again, and you will not see the simple 



32 

kite handled by Franklin, but a representation of 
the telegraph — electricity made useful to man, 
and in place of the old hand-press you will ob- 
serve that most wonderful production of human 
genius, the last improved steam printing press. 
I am informed by a most competent judge, that 
upon the machines now in use in any of our first- 
class printing establishments, more than the 
largest edition of any newspaper published in 
Franklin's time can be printed in one minute. 

Reflect upon the past and the present, think 
only of electricity and of the press, and then tell 
me if this window does not beautifully, wisely, 
and justly, do honor to the memory of the founder 
of this College, the immortal Benjamin Franklin. 

From the window we now turn to the portrait 
of Rev. William Smith, D.D., the first Provost 
of the College. The foremost scholar of his day 
in this province, it was no wonder that Franklin 
called him to the high office of Provost in the 
year 1755, and although his active duties ceased 
because of an attempted repeal of the charter in 
1779, he held office until the year 1791. The 
history of Dr. Smith is interwoven with the his- 
tory of the College ; as a preacher he was distin- 
guished for eloquence, as a teacher he was un- 
surpassed, as a man he was not only indefatigable, 
but what he designed to do he did with a will, 
and with such a consummate skill that he gene- 
rally accomplished his object. 

Notwithstanding the unfortunate difficulties 
which at one time embarrassed the Provost and 



33 

the institution, the minutes and acts of the Board 
of Trustees prove that his great merit was known, 
and, to a certain extent, appreciated. Not only 
did Dr. Smith devote his richly cultivated mind 
and vast energy to the instruction of youth and 
to the every-day wants of the College, but, by 
request of the Trustees, he went abroad, and in 
England raised £8000 for the institution in the 
years 1762-3 ; while by other means and in other 
places he added to this large sum £12,000, thus 
by his individual efforts adding £20,000 to the 
funds of the College. 

As may be supposed, students flocked to the 
city, and in 1773 as many as three hundred pupils 
were instructed in the collegiate, medical, and 
academic schools. 

"We must not forget now to turn our attention 
to another memorial window. It has been erected 
in honor to the Penn family. "What more suita- 
ble place than this could have been selected to 
perpetuate the memory of "William Penn ? Of 
comprehensive views, boundless liberality, large 
benevolence, and unswerving integrity, William 
Penn was a man imbued with deep religious 
convictions; he acted upon principle, and sought 
by the gentlest means within his power to do 
that which before had been accomplished only by 
the sword. 

Men may differ as to particular creeds and 
forms of faith. The founder of this Common- 
wealth believed in and acted upon a system of 
faith which requires a strong intellect to com- 



34 

prehend, for, while it dispenses with mere form, 
without adventitious aid it appeals directly to 
the intellect, the heart, and the soul of man, as it 
deals with the unseen and with things eternal. 

Here in this metropolis, in the city which he 
founded and loved, and in this building dedicated 
to the cause of human knowledge, let the name 
of the founder of the Commonwealth be held in 
reverence, and his fame be everlasting. 

Of Thomas Penn, a son of William, we must 
here speak, for the College owes him a debt of 
gratitude it can never repay. Benjamin Frank- 
lin and Dr. Smith labored with all their might, 
but even the efforts of these giants might have 
failed but for the aid of Thomas Penn. 

The influence of this gentleman was freely 
exerted with persons of rank and fortune in Eng- 
land, when, in 1762-3, Dr. Smith raised a large 
sum of money there, while this munificent patron 
of learning contributed £4500 in money, and 2500 
acres of land in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. 

Hand down to posterity the name of the father 
and son. What they did for mankind will live 
when the sword shall be forgotten ; when the 
nations of the earth shall assemble as one 
brotherhood, and when their several emblems of 
power and authority shall gracefully descend 
before the advancing banner of the Prince of 
Peace. 

There is another name almost forgotten, and 
another window in the main hall, by the stairway, 
soon to be finished, which is to be constructed in 



35 

honor of a man whose modest merit cannot, by 
the learned world, be unknown. When, in 1746, 
the wonderful properties of electricity were com- 
paratively unknown, four young men, Benjamin 
Franklin, Thomas Hopkinson, Philip Syng, and 
another, devoted their leisure moments to the in- 
vestigation of this wonderful subject ; each made 
discoveries, and henceforth the name of Ebene- 
zer Kinnersley became familiar to the scien- 
tific men of Europe. 

Dr. Franklin, the friend of Kinnersley, who 
knew his eminent worth, induced him to accept 
the position of head master in the English school, 
at the College of Philadelphia, in 1753, and two 
years afterwards, to wit, on the 11th of July, 
1755, he was chosen professor of the English 
tongue and of oratory, a position, I believe, after- 
wards held by such men as Rev. Dr. Jacob 
Duche, Rev. Dr. William Rogers, and our own 
lamented Henry Reed. 

Professor Kinnersley continued to hold his 
professorship until October 17, 1772, when his 
failing health caused him to resign his office, and 
on February 2, 1773, the Trustees passed a reso- 
lution regretting his loss to the College. Dr. 
Smith, in his eulogy on Franklin, names Profes- 
sor Kinnersley as the third professor, and then 
adds, " there is in the experiment-room an elec- 
trical apparatus, the property of one of the pro- 
fessors, chiefly his own invention, and perhaps 
the completest of its kind in the world." This 
apparatus was afterward purchased by the Trus- 



36 

tees, and a part is, I think, still preserved. Dr. 
Priestly, in his history of electricity (pp. 187- 
190), writing in 1767, says : " While we are at- 
tending to what was done by Dr. Franklin at 
Philadelphia, we must by no means overlook 
what was done by Mr. Kinnersley, the doctor's 
friend," and again " some of his observations, of 
which an account is given in the doctor's letters, 
are very curious, and some later accounts which 
he himself has transmitted to England seem to 
promise that, if he continues his electrical in- 
quiries, his name, after that of his friend, will be 
second to few in the history of electricity." 

Born in England on the 30th day of Novem- 
ber, 1711, he, with his father, a Baptist clergy- 
man, came to America and settled in Lower 
Dublin, Pa. He was ordained as a Baptist minis- 
ter in 1743, but was never the pastor of a church. 
He died on the 4th day of July, A. D. 1778, at 
the age of 67 years. His remains are interred in 
the cemetery attached to the Lower Dublin Bap- 
tist Church. 

It has thus come to pass, that in this new 
building, and in an institution in which he had 
once been an honored instructor, and to the pros- 
perity of which he had so greatly contributed, a 
grateful generation, appreciating his modest 
worth, perpetuates his name, and deems it a pri- 
vilege so to do. 

At this point in these remarks, we pause to say 
that the windows and portraits heretofore speci- 



37 

fled, illustrate the pre-revolutionary history of 
this institution. 

!N"ext in order of time must be named the 
great mechanician and astronomer, David Pit- 
tenhouse. This very remarkable man deserves 
something more than a passing notice. 

He was not only an American, but a native 
of this county, and was born upon the 8th of 
April, 1732, in the then township of Roxborough, 
now in the Twenty-first "Ward of the city of 
Philadelphia. His great-grandfather, William, 
established, about the year 1690, the first paper- 
mill in British America, upon a small stream 
called "Paper-Mill Run," in Roxborough. When 
the subject of this sketch was seventeen years 
of age, he made a wooden clock, and soon after 
constructed a twenty-four hour clock. 

Such mechanical genius could not be over- 
looked or neglected, and his wise father soon 
purchased for him such tools as were required in 
the business of clock-making. 

This natural-born mechanic and man of real 
genius, while following his pursuits, studied 
mathematics, and soon invented his celebrated 
Orrery or Planetarium. When this wonderful 
piece of mechanism passed by purchase, I believe, 
into the possession of Princeton College, its re- 
moval was regarded as a public calamity, and a 
new one was ordered by the Legislature of the 
State, to be paid for at the public expense. 

It was presented to the College, and now re- 
mains in its possession. When the British occu- 



pied Philadelphia, Sir "William Howe detailed a 
special guard to protect this valuable instrument 
from possible injury. 

On the 7th of January, 1769, the American 
Philosophical Society appointed the great astron- 
omer one of thirteen gentlemen to observe the 
transit of Venus over the sun's disk, which was to 
take place on the 3d day of June, 1769. 

An observatory was erected at Norriton, 
Montgomery County, chiefly for this purpose. 
Doctor "William Smith, and John Lukens, the 
Surveyor-General of the province, were appointed 
to assist Mr. Rittenhouse. Dr. Rush, in his eu- 
logy upon Eittenhouse, says : — 

" "We are naturally led here to take a view of 
our philosopher, with his associates, in their pre- 
paration to observe a phenomenon which had 
never been seen but twice before by any inhabi- 
tant of our earth, and which would never be seen 
again by any person then living, and on which 
depended very important astronomical conse- 
quences. 

" The night before the long-expected day, was 
probably passed in a degree of solicitude which 
precluded sleep. How great must have been their 
joy when they beheld the morning sun, and the 
whole horizon without a cloud. 

" In pensive silence and trembling anxiety they 
waited for the predicted moment of observation. 
It came, and brought with it all that had been 
wished for and expected by those who saw it. In 
our philosopher it excited in the instant of one of 



39 

the contacts of the planet with the sun, an emo- 
tion of delight so exquisite and powerful as to 
induce fainting." "This," says Dr. Rush, "will 
readily be believed by those who have known the 
extent of pleasure which attends the discovery or 
first perception of Truth." 

So great was the fame of our astronomer, that 
we find him employed, at brief intervals, from 
1763 to 1785, in establishing boundary lines, and 
fixing the limits of great Provinces and States. 

He was the Treasurer of this State for twelve 
years, and a trustee of the loan office for ten. 

In 1791, Dr. Rittenhouse (who had then re- 
ceived the degrees of A,M. and LL.D., and who 
had succeeded Dr. Franklin as President of the 
American Philosophical Society) was a trustee 
of the College ; he had held office as far back as 
1779. 

Upon the 7th day of January, 1780, he was 
elected Vice-Provost of the University, having 
been appointed Professor of Astronomy Decem- 
ber 16th, 1779. Dr. Rittenhouse resigned these 
positions on the 18th day of April, 1782. 

Ten years afterward, in 1792, George Washing- 
ton appointed Dr. R. the first Director of the 
Mint, and the first coining-press ever constructed 
here was made after his design. 

In 1778, Jefferson, in a letter written to Rit- 
tenhouse, says : " You should consider that the 
world has but one Rittenhouse, and that it never 
had one before. The amazing mechanical repre- 
sentation of the solar system (referring to the 



40 

Planetarium or Orrery), which you conceived and 
executed, has never been surpassed by any but 
the works of which it is a copy." 

In his Notes on Virginia, written in 1781, he 
says : "In war, we produced a Washington. * * * 
In physics, a Franklin. * # * We have sup- 
posed Mr. Eittenhouse second to no astronomer 
living ; that in genius he must be the first, be- 
cause self-taught. As an artist he has exhibited 
as great a proof of mechanical genius as the world 
ever produced. He has not indeed made a world, 
but he has by imitation approached nearer its 
Maker than any man who has lived from the cre- 
ation to this day." This great man died at his 
house, at the northwest corner of Seventh and 
Arch Streets, on Sunday, the 26th day of June, 
1796, in the 65th year of his age. 

How well yonder memorial window, the gift of 
the alumni, perpetuates the name and fame of our 
illustrious Yice-Provost you may judge, when I 
tell you that you will find pictured there the coin- 
ing-press, the Orrery, and a representation of the 
transit of Venus. What more can be said of the 
man, of his genius, or of his deeds, all insepara- 
bly associated with the University of Pennsyl- 
vania ! 

The Rev. John Ewing, D.D., whose portrait 
looks down upon you from these walls, was the 
first Provost of the University, as distinguished 
from the College, under the charter of 1779, and 
he held that position until the year 1802. 

This most distinguished Presbyterian clergy- 



41 

man was born in Nottingham township, Cecil 
County, Md., June 22, 1732. It has been said of 
him that in mathematics and astrononry, in Latin, 
Greek, Hebrew, and Logic, in Metaphysics and 
moral Philosophy, he was probably more accom- 
plished than any man of his day in the United 
States. As a mathematician, the remark is abso- 
lutely true. When Dr. William Smith, the Pro- 
vost, visited England, Dr. Ewing, at the age of 
26, was employed to instruct the philosophical 
classes in the College of Philadelphia. 

In 1773 he visited England, and the University 
of Edinburgh conferred upon him the degree 
ofD.D. 

My friend, Horatio Gates Jones, Esq., of our 
bar, to whom I am indebted for many facts and 
dates connected with the most prominent men of 
the University, calls my attention to an anec- 
dote which had escaped my observation; it is 
worthy of notice. When Dr. Ewing visited 
England, he met the celebrated Dr. Johnson at 
the house of Mr. Dilly, the wealthy and hospita- 
ble bookseller of London. Dr. Johnson was bit- 
ter against the colonies, and, as usual, was ex- 
ceedingly crabbed and stern. The contest with 
America came up for discussion, and when Dr. 
Ewing, the only American present, was appealed 
to, he began to defend the colonies. Dr. John- 
son's feelings were aroused, and the epithets 
rebels and scoundrels were freely applied to the 
colonists. At length Dr. Johnson rudely said to 
Dr. Ewing, "Sir, what do you know in America? 



42 

You never read; you have no books there." 
"Pardon me, sir," replied Dr. Ewing, "we have 
read the Rambler" This civility instantly paci- 
fied the Doctor, and they thereupon sat up until 
midnight in amiable, eloquent, and interesting 
conversation. Dr. Ewing died Sept. 8th, 1802, 
aged 71. 

The vacant Provostship was not filled until 
the year 1806, when John McDowell, LL.D., of 
Pennsylvania, was elected to the professorship of 
natural philosophy, and at the end of the year, or 
early in 1807, he was elected Provost. I have 
been unable to find any detail of facts in connec- 
tion with this gentleman ; it is certain, however, 
that his health was feeble, and in four years he 
was obliged to resign. 

His attachment, says Dr. Wood, in his history 
of the University, remained unabated. He sup- 
plied a temporary vacancy caused by the resigna- 
tion of his successor, and by his will he bequeathed 
his books, which form a valuable portion of the 
library, to the institution. 

Dr. Andrews, who had for nearly twenty years 
(from 1791 to 1810) occupied the position of Vice- 
Provost, and had been a professor from 1789, 
was in December, 1810, elected Provost. He 
died March 29th, 1813, at the age of 67 years. 
He was a native of Maryland, and an ordained 
minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church. At 
seventeen he was sent to the College and Acad- 
emy of Philadelphia, and graduated in 1765. 

The subject of this sketch is described as a man 



43 

of rare classical knowledge ; an indefatigable 
worker, and an excellent teacher ; if not endowed 
with the splendid genius, he was nevertheless 
amply qualified to discharge those duties which 
develop strength of mind, high-toned morality, 
and solid learning. 

In the order of time, and of succession, w r e now 
mention the name of Rev. Frederick Beasley, 
D.D. Born in 1777, near Edinton, S. C, he gra- 
duated at Princeton, with high honor, in 1797. 
Under Dr. Samuel Stanhope Smith, he studied 
theology. In 1801, he was ordained a deacon in 
the Protestant Episcopal Church, by Bishop 
Moore, of New York, and a priest in 1802. As 
a minister, he officiated at Elizabethtown, ]ST. J., 
St. Peter's, Albany, and St. Paul's, Baltimore, 
where he remained until July, 1813, when he ac- 
cepted the position of Provost of the University. 
The degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by 
Columbia College and the University. Respected 
and learned, Dr. Beasley continued to discharge 
his duties for fifteen years. He resigned his 
office, to accept a pastorate at Trenton, N. J. 
Failing health, after a time, obliged him to retire 
from active duty, but he devoted his leisure mo- 
ments to literary and theological studies until his 
sudden death, upon November 1, 1845. 

When the University, strictly so called, was 
established, the new trustees met in December, 
1779, and steps were at once taken to organize 
the schools. 

James Cannon was appointed to the chair of 



44 

mathematics. He in a few years resigned, and 
then the name of Robert Patterson appears as his 
successor in office. Subsequently a reorganiza- 
tion took place, and in the department of arts five 
separate schools were established, each being 
placed under the care of a professor. The math- 
ematical school fell to the lot of Robert Patter- 
son, LL.D. For thirty-five years he held the 
office. 

When Dr. McDowell died, he (Dr. P.) united 
to the chair of mathematics that of natural phi- 
losophy, and in 1810 was elected Vice-Provost, in 
the place of Dr. Andrews, who had been made 
Provost ; he held this office from 1810 to 1813. 
The subject of this sketch was an Irishman by 
birth. He came here before the Revolution, in 
1768; was an Assistant-Surgeon and Brigade 
Major in the Revolution, from 1776 to 1778 ; and 
he clung with the utmost tenacity to those pure 
principles of republican government which have 
made his name, and those of more than one of his 
relatives and descendants, dear to the American 
citizen. Dr. Patterson was the President of the 
American Philosophical Society in 1819, and the 
Director of the Mint from 1805 to 1824. In the 
last-named year he died, aged 82. With a bright 
intellect, and a mind clear enough to comprehend, 
and accurate enough to master the most difficult 
problems in mathematics, he was renowned for 
his solidity of understanding and skill as a 
teacher, and, when at an advanced age he retired, 



45 

his resignation was followed with the regrets and 
benedictions of the public. 

It has been said of him " that he united the 
christian with the philosopher, and at a good old 
age went down to the grave with the full assu- 
rance that he would rise again to a happier and 
more exalted existence." 

The elder Patterson died, but before his death 
he enjoyed a privilege which seldom falls to the 
lot of man. He lived long enough to see his son 
fill his place, and under his own eye perpetuate 
his virtues, talents, and learning. 

Dr. Robert M. Patterson, the son, was born in 
this city, March 23d, 1787. He graduated at the 
University, as a Bachelor of Arts, in 1804, and 
in a few years later, as a Doctor of Medicine. 
His professional studies were pursued in Paris 
and London. 

From 1813 to 1814, he was a Professor of Nat- 
ural Philosophy in the University, and from 1814 
to 1828 he filled the chairs of Mathematics, Nat- 
ural Philosophy and Chemistry, and in the spring 
of 1814 was elected Vice-Provost. In 1828, he 
removed to Virginia, where, from 1828 to 1835, 
he occupied, with distinction, the chair of Natural 
Philosophy in the University of that State. 

Returning to Philadelphia, Dr. P. accepted an 
appointment as Director of the Mint, an office 
he held from 1835 to 1851. He was elected Pre- 
sident of the American Philosophical Society in 
1845, and declined the position, but subsequently, 



46 

in 1849, he was re-elected, and accepted the office. 
He died on the 5th of September, 1854. 

Dr. Patterson was a gifted man, and in mental 
characteristics so evenly balanced as to render it 
a difficult task to do justice to his memory. 

As a teacher, one of his most distinguished 
pupils, now a professor here, testifies to his great 
capacity, while, as a lecturer on science, no less 
a man than the late Doctor Dunglison consid- 
ered him one of the most successful he ever 
heard. 

Dr. Patterson's thoughts were clear and to the 
point, his style eloquent, his analysis almost per- 
fect, his learning abundant. He was, moreover, 
a modest man, and avoided mere ostentation and 
display. 

In social life his conversation was charming, 
while his home was a centre of cultivation, re- 
finement, and love. It makes me sad to think 
that of the group of five distinguished men, who 
were accustomed to meet for social intercourse, 
all are gone — Bethune, Dallas Bache, Dunglison, 
Kane, and Patterson, have passed into another 
world. 

In 1828, Eev. ¥m, H. DeLancy, D.D., was 
elected Provost. 

In the city of Philadelphia, it is hardly neces- 
sary for me even to sketch the history of this 
learned and godly man. My eye can almost see 
the lofty spire of the church in which he minis- 
tered, and my ear is even now entranced with the 
music of its sweet chime of bells. 



47 

For six years, and until 1834, he went in and 
out before his pupils, many of whom live to-day, 
and must well remember his lessons of wisdom, 
replete with learning, his words of wise counsel, 
his pious example. 

In 1834, Dr. DeLancy was elected the Episco- 
pal Bishop of the then diocese of "Western New 
York; from that period, and until the day of his 
death, his name and fame became the property of 
the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United 
States. 

Just here I must pause, and for a few moments 
postpone my remarks concerning the man who 
was the successor of Bishop De Lancy as the 
Provost of this University. Presently I shall 
speak of him. 

And now we have reached a period in the his- 
tory of the University, when it seems to me as 
though I am about to speak, not of the dead, but 
of the living, for the remaining portraits and me- 
morial windows remind me of the men who were 
the instructors of my youth, and whose names are 
signed to my own diploma. 

I can see them now as one by one they enter 
the chapel, or sit in the class-room. 

There was that very learned man, Henry Yeth- 
ake, LL.D., born in 1792, in the Colony of Ese- 
quibo, Guiana, South America. He removed to 
the United States at four years of age. Having 
graduated at Columbia College, New York, he 
studied law. For one year he taught mathema- 
tics in Columbia College. In 1813, he filled the 



48 

chairs of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at 
Rutgers, !N". J. ? and of Chemistry and Mathema- 
tics at Princeton, from 1817 to 1821. Dr. Yeth- 
ake was also a professor at Dickinson College and 
the University of ISTew York, while at one time 
he was the President of Washington College, Yir- 
ginia, and in 1859, the Professor of Higher Math- 
ematics in the Polytechnic College in this city. 
He was a professor in the University of Pennsyl- 
vania from 1836 to 1859, while he was also its 
Yice-Provost in 1846, and finally from 1854 to 
1859 was the Provost. As a man Dr. Yethake 
was kind, considerate, and the very soul of honor, 
and in the republic of letters he deserves a high 
rank. As a mathematician he was most eminent, 
while his knowledge in almost every branch of 
human learning was profound. Did time permit, 
it would be a labor of love to trace in detail the 
history of this remarkable man, and prove by in- 
contestable evidence that he is justly entitled to 
the position assigned to him in this discourse. I 
have, however, said enough, and that very delib- 
erately and advisedly, to perpetuate his fame in 
so far as it is possible on this occasion so to do. 

There was Rev. Samuel Brown Wylie, D.D., 
who was born in Ireland, May 21, 1773, graduated 
at the University of Glasgow in 1797, and was 
a professor in the Theological Seminary of the 
Reformed Presbyterian Church from 1809 to 
1851. 

Dr. "Wylie was a Yice-Provost from 1834 to 
1845, and he held the Professorship of Ancient 



49 

Languages from 1838 to 1845, when he resigned 
and was elected an Emeritus Professor. "When 
I knew this Vice-Provost he was advanced in 
years, but his mind was as bright as ever, and 
his Irish heart gushed out in expressions of ten- 
derness and affection. 

If he was not brilliant he was strong, and, as a 
teacher, his instruction was most valuable. 

As a classical scholar his learning was pro- 
found, for his knowledge was built upon a founda- 
tion so solid that it could not be shaken. Be- 
sides all this, his acquirements in other branches 
of knowledge were extensive, and he was most 
thoroughly versed in moral philosophy and theo- 
logy. Amid the lamentations of his students 
and the public, he died on the 14th of October, 
1852, in this city. 

And now another of my teachers appears before 
me, and, as I gaze upon his compact form and 
pleasant face, I recognize Alexander Dallas 
Bache, LL.D. 

Born in Philadelphia, July 19, 1806, he died 
at Newport, E. I., February 17, 1867. 

His mother was a daughter of Alexander James 
Dallas, and he was a grandson of Dr. Franklin. 

He graduated at West Point in 1825, and until 
1829 was a Lieutenant of Engineers, and was 
employed in constructing Fort Adams, at the 
entrance of jNarragansett Bay. 

From 1827 to 1832, he was the Professor oi 
Mathematics in the University. Elected Presi- 
dent of Girard College, he resigned his professor- 



50 

ship, and in 1836 spent some time in Europe 
inspecting the schools there, and on his return 
prepared an elaborate report of great value. 

In 1839 he resigned his connection with Grirard 
College, and from 1839 to 1842, was the principal 
of the Central High School of Philadelphia. On 
the 5th of August, 1842, he was again elected to 
the chair of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry 
in this institution. 

The nation now demanded his services, and in 
1843 he was appointed the Superintendent of the 
Coast Survey, a position which he held until his 
death. 

In 1846 Dr. Bache was made a Regent of the 
Smithsonian Institution. Long before that time 
he had been elected President of the American 
Philosophical Society; while the University of 
New York in 1836, the University of Pennsyl- 
vania in 1837, and Harvard in 1851, had each 
conferred upon him the degree of LL.D. 

The mere mention of the numerous positions 
most acceptably filled by Dr. Bache proves that 
he was no common man. Indeed one had but to 
know him to be satisfied that he was not only a 
cultivated gentleman, but an accomplished scien- 
tist. Without a particle of parade or display, 
with facility he imparted his knowledge to his 
pupils, and thus illustrated the abundant stores 
of learning at his command ; he was cautious 
and accurate in his inductions, solid in his attain- 
ments, and eminently practical ; altogether, this 



51 

professor was a most worthy descendant of the 
great Franklin. 

Another of the professors was the gentle, cour- 
teous, and dignified Henry Reed, LL.D. As a 
lecturer and teacher he was distinguished for 
clearness of thought and purity of style; well 
versed in general literature, he was especially 
eminent in the department of rhetoric and Eng- 
lish literature, over which he presided. His pub- 
lished essays, already familiar to the public, es- 
tablished his reputation as a writer, critic, and 
man of learning. The memorial window is the 
gift of the alumni. Born in Philadelphia, July 
11, 1808, he graduated here in 1825. 

Having pursued the study of the law under the 
direction of the Hon. John Sergeant, he was 
admitted to the bar in 1829 ; soon after, in 1831, 
he was appointed Assistant Professor of English 
Literature in the University, and, in 1835, was 
elected Professor of Rhetoric and English Lite- 
rature. On the 7th of February, 1854, he was 
chosen Vice-Provost. His professorship became 
vacant, and, oh! how sad are the recollections 
which now cluster around the subject. On his 
return from Europe, the beloved professor took 
passage upon the ill-fated "Arctic," and with 
that vessel was lost at sea on the 27th day of 
September, 1854. Eighteen years have rolled 
into eternity since the sad event, but the features 
and form of my instructor live vividly in my 
memory, and his name and fame, with that of his 
colleagues, "Wylie, Vethake, and Bache, are per- 



52 

petuated together in the memorial windows and 
portraits which adorn these walls. 

Venerated and beloved professors, after a lapse 
of nearly thirty years, it has fallen to the lot of 
one of your pupils to proclaim your fame, to trace 
imperfectly your history, and to associate your 
names with this new building and this honored 
institution. 

I see you once more gathered together now 
and here, and, as I pay this poor tribute to your 
worth and learning, let me for the last time 
exclaim, Hail and farewell ! 

A delicate and difficult duty now devolves 
upon me, for the true history of this institution 
requires me to notice the Provost from 1834 to 
1852. Born upon the banks of the Passaic, in 
New Jersey, in 1793, at twenty.four years of age, 
and from 1817 to 1823 he filled the Professorship 
of Hebrew, Ecclesiastical History, and Church 
Government in the Seminary of the Reformed 
Dutch Church at New Brunswick, N. J. Prom 
1823 to 1834 he was the pastor of the First Re- 
formed Dutch Church at Albany, 1ST. Y. 

It has already been stated he was the Provost 
of the University from 1834 to 1852, and he 
served this institution for a longer consecutive 
period of time than any other provost. 

Having resigned his office in 1852, he chose to 
spend the evening of his life among the associa- 
tions and friends of his earliest years, and he 
therefore accepted the Professorship of Ecclesi- 
astical History and Church Government in the 



53 

Seminary at New Brunswick, and of Mental 
Philosophy in Rutgers College. He continued 
in the active performance of his duties until his 
death. He died in this city, on the 8th day of 
September, 1857. 

When, upon a pleasant afternoon in the early 
autumn of 1857, " devout men carried him to his 
burial," that eloquent and learned divine and 
christian gentleman, Rev. George "W. Bethune, 
D.D., as he stood and gazed upon the prostrate 
form of his deceased friend, the late Provost, 
addressed the sorrowing congregation which 
crowded the ancient church at New Brunswick, 
N.J. 

Though that gifted orator, for many years one 
of your trustees, has gone to his rest and his 
reward, he shall speak now, and thus an impar- 
tial tongue shall honor the memory of the dead. 

Dr. Bethune, among other things, said : " His 
most striking characteristic was strength. His 
person was strong, his frame, large, firmly knit, 
and commanding, rose before you like a column 
on which no ordinary weight of public burden 
might be safely laid. 

"His countenance was strong, the lines of 
thought deeply traced, his eye clear and almost 
stern. 

"His voice was strong; no one who looked 
upon him and heard his Boanergic eloquence 
doubted his strength. 

"His intellect was strong; culture and con- 
victions of taste smoothed some of its rugged- 



54 

ness; his grasp was vigorous, his logic direct and 
determined, crushing the superficial semblancy 
of sophistry and art. 

"His will was strong; the prompt energy of 
his convictions and the humility with which he 
obeyed well-ascertained principles made him de- 
termined, because he was sure. 

"His affections were strong; if those who 
looked upon his muscular frame and hard fea- 
tures, or heard his stentorian voice, or were 
beaten down by his unadorned argument, thought 
him in temper harsh, or in spirit unkindly, they 
knew him not ; to his friends, to all who knew 
him in social life or sought his counsel and 
sympathy, he was gentle, and kind, and con- 
siderate. 

" His truthfulness was remarkable, his theology 
very grave. He chose ever the most liberal 
policy, and inclined to the most charitable judg- 
ment, hence fidelity in his duties and friendships 
was a distinguishing trait of his life in all his re- 
lations. 

"His life was pure, grave, calm, consistent, 
industrious, and kind." 

I can add nothing more, except to say that 
the name of that Provost was John Ludlow, 
D.D., LL.D. His surviving family tender their 
thanks to the generous donors of the memorial 
window, while they are most happy again to 
present to the University that portrait which, 
even now, as I speak, seems to cast upon me a 
father's smile and a father's blessing. 



55 

Having now finished the history of Founder, 
Provosts, Vice-Provosts, and Professors of the 
College and University, whose portraits and me- 
morial windows are here placed, let me call your 
attention very briefly to the other memorial 
windows which grace the building, and to the 
gifts which adorn the library. 

The literary societies, fired with a noble ambi- 
tion, have each contributed a memorial window. 
The one, the Philomathean, perpetuates its name 
and that of its founders, from the year 1815. 

The other, the Zelosophic, from the year 1829, 
when it was established. 

Loving hearts and willing hands have been 
busy here, for the name and fame of a trustee 
who held office for nearly sixty-one years (from 
1774 to 1835), that venerable and ever-to-be- 
beloved servant of God, Bishop White, lives 
here, and so, too, do the name and fame of a 
successor, another trustee, the godly and well- 
learned Bishop Potter. 

As you ascend the stairway you will observe 
a most beautiful window. Its story is a simple 
one, and its lesson instructive. Fraternal affec- 
tion has there adorned this building with a 
costly work of art, which preserves the name 
and commemorates the virtues of Alexander 
Benson, Jr. 

Valuable collections of books have recently 
been presented to the University by the families 
of the late Stephen Col well, Esq.; the late 
Evans Rogers, Esq. ; and the late Dr. Charles M. 



56 

"Wetherill, who died suddenly, and who therefore 
did not live to enjoy the fruit of his own labor, 
or to impart to his pupils and to the nation the 
knowledge which he possessed, and which had 
already made him eminent in the scientific world. 

Portraits of the first and last named gentlemen, 
and a bronze bust of the lamented Evans Rogers, 
Esq., accompanied the gifts, and will be placed 
in the library of the institution. 

And now, on behalf of the several donors, I 
present these precious memorials to the Board of 
Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. 

The University has entered upon a new era. 
Its learned Provost (to whom I acknowledge my 
obligations for most interesting information in 
regard to the College) and its able professors 
stand ready to sustain and advance its well- 
earned reputation. 

Kindred institutions elsewhere have noble 
histories, and can point with pride to the emi- 
nent men who have, from the remotest period, 
been associated with them. The University of 
Pennsylvania only remembers the past, and with 
assured hope looks into the future, and where is 
the man who, as he camly surveys the mighty 
influence produced upon the human mind, in time 
and for all eternity, by one such institution as 
this, will refuse with the speaker to exclaim, 
JEsto JPerpehia. 



57 



THE ACCEPTANCE. 

Rev. Dr. Morton", on behalf of the Trustees, 
accepted the memorial windows and portraits in 
the following remarks : — 

In behalf of the Trustees of the University of 
Pennsylvania, I accept, with thanks, the valuable 
gift now offered. 

That gift owes its value not only to its intrinsic 
worth, but also to the priceless associations which 
cluster around it. Consisting, as it does, of 
" memorials" of great and good men, of striking 
portraits of wise and worthy men, it is rich in 
suggestions of practical import and moral power. 
As the eye in its scrutiny passes slowly around 
the walls of this chapel, and falls, first on the 
stained windows, glowing with many-colored 
lights, and revealing many familiar and honored 
names, then follows the line of speaking portraits, 
which seem to be looking at the admitted glory 
of the autumnal sunshine — the past comes back 
upon us with amazing power, and reads many a 
lesson which the present may well lay to heart. 
These good and noble and often great men have 
departed. The places which knew them once 
know them no more. But, though dead, they 
still speak to us, and their lives and labors, pic- 
tured on the casements, and their painted por- 
traits ranged along the walls, seem to fill this 



58 

chapel with solemn utterances and impressive 
thoughts. 

"Soldiers! (said Napoleon, before the great 
battle which decided the fate of Egypt) soldiers ! 
from the summit of those Pyramids forty centu- 
ries look down upon you." It was a sublime and 
stimulating thought, well calculated to stir up 
the souls of the hearers to their lowest depths. 
Yet the centuries which looked down from those 
colossal structures were centuries of ignorance, 
cruelty, and grinding oppression, and the deeds 
to which those appealed to were stirred up were 
deeds of violence and bloodshed. But, to-day, I 
am able to say to this assembly, and especially 
to those who shall be students in these halls : 
Many years of grand efforts and noble achieve- 
ments for the good of our race look down upon 
you from these walls, and should stimulate you 
to fight the good fight of faith, and virtue, and 
patriotism, and philanthropy. Our own poet has 
said : — 

" Lives of great men all remind us, 

We may make our lives sublime, 
And, departing, leave behind us 

Footprints on the sands of time, — 
Footprints that perhaps another, 

Sailing o'er life's solemn main, 
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, 

Seeing, shall take heart again." 

The lives of great and good men are here re- 
called by this noble gift of colored glass and pic- 
tured canvass. May we not hope that they will 



59 



have the influence they ought to exercise, and 
gloriously fulfil the expectation of the poet? 

In behalf, therefore, of the Trustees of the Uni- 
versity, I again thank the generous donors. 



CONCLUSION. 

At the conclusion of Rev. Dr. Morton's ad- 
dress a benediction was pronounced by Rev. Dr 
Beadle, and the audience separated. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE EYENING. 



Ik order to give an opportunity to those who 
had been unable to attend the ceremonies of the 
morning, to inspect the building, the Trustees in- 
vited a number of gentlemen to be present on the 
evening of the day of the inauguration. The 
building was brilliantly illuminated on this occa- 
sion, and its beautiful architectural proportions, 
and the spaciousness of its interior arrangements, 
were seen to great advantage. After some time 
passed in visiting the various rooms, the guests 
were invited to proceed to the Assembly-room, 
where a collation had been provided. 

After the collation, Frederick Fraley, Esq., 
of the Board of Trustees, invited the attention 
of those present, and said that no arrangement 
had been made for formal addresses at this time, 
but that, still, the authorities of the University 
would be glad to hear from gentlemen present 
what impression had been made upon them by 
the ceremonies of the day, and by their inspection 
of the building in which they were assembled. 
It was most important to know how far the great 
work which they had undertaken was supported 
by the sympathy of the public. 



62 

The chairman then called upon Joseph Har- 
rison, Jr., Esq., who spoke as follows : — 

Mr. Provost, Professors, and Gentlemen : — 

It may not be out of place when we consider 
the past and present importance of The Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania, that outside people should 
give utterance to such ideas as they may hold on 
the subject of Education. 

I may in some degree entertain heterodox views 
on this subject, and, with all deference to your- 
self, Mr. Provost, to the Faculty of this Institu- 
tion, and to this company, I willingly leave them 
with you for what they are worth, and do not in 
any way invite or desire discussion. 

That education of some kind is of value to all, 
and absolute necessity to many, need not be 
pointed out or insisted upon at this day ; but we 
may well consider what kind of education will 
most conduce to the best uses of the individual 
in the varied walks of life. 

In one case, the youth who is well to do in the 
world, and has no apparent need to concern him- 
self as to his means of living in the future, may 
desire, and may look toward attaining, a very 
high standard of education, not for the purpose 
of using it for his material benefit in the battle of 
life, but because he feels that it will be a pleasure 
to him to knoiv, — that it will be discreditable to 
him to be ignorant, — The University of Penn- 
sylvania is the place for him. 



63 

Another with a natural bent toward abstract 
science, with what is called genius too, if you 
please, and with a full understanding that what 
he may acquire in the schools must be his means 
for future support, seeks the spot where such 
necessary knowledge can best be found. The 
University of Pennsylvania is the place for him! 

I have been speaking of the few, in the great 
mass of humanity; one class heaping up knowl- 
edge as a gratification and an ornament, and that 
other class, whose opportunities make it possible 
to turn their acquirements to account in the 
learned professions, as well as in other pursuits 
needing such knowledge, and thereby conducing 
to their pleasure as well as to their profit. 

Let us now glance toward the practical toilers 
of our race, that greater number who fill the 
ranks of the grand army of producers ; they who 
must strain body and brain to the utmost to first 
conquer a living, and from whose number in the 
past, as in the present, are recruited in almost 
every instance the managers and masters of our 
great industrial establishments. 

Equal, perhaps, in all respects with those who 
bear off the honors at college, they seldom have 
time to spend at school after fifteen or sixteen, 
and they or theirs as seldom have means to spare 
above their ordinary wants. The University of 
Pennsylvania is no place for them. 

A good deal is written and said in these days 
about a higher standard of education for those 
who fill the third place in this category — that 



64 

they should be taught chemistry, mathematics, 
and the other abstract sciences, so as to better fit 
them for the work in which they must strive to 
make a living. 

I doubt very much the necessity or the value 
of these acquisitions, and I think, under the pre- 
sent condition of things, that the preachings and 
in part the practices of the hour are toward too 
high a standard of education for the man who 
must, perforce, start in life with the stern neces- 
sity of earning his daily bread without needless 
loss of time. 

Keep him too late at school, and it will be per- 
haps too late for him to learn a trade. Keep him 
too late at school, and he will beget a distaste for 
such useful work as will best tend toward fur- 
nishing him with the means to live. 

To my mind the very best knowledge that a 
young man can have at twenty-one, situated as I 
have just described, is that which he can turn to 
the best and most profitable account' — that which 
will always be in demand. 

"Oh!" exclaims one, "you cannot make good 
makers of machinery without this higher educa- 
tion, nor can you make a good dyer or founder 
without a full knowledge of the chemistry or the 
metallurgy that bears upon his trade." True, in 
the main ; but do not flatter yourself into believ- 
ing that all those who achieve distinction in the 
industrial arts come from the number of those 
most highly educated, in the common sense of 
these terms. 



65 

That they might more easily have become mas- 
ters and managers in their varied vocations had 
they possessed, at the outset of their career, the 
knowledge of a graduate of this University, or 
of the Philadelphia High School, is possible, but 
the chances might have been that those who fill 
the highest and most profitable places to-day 
might never have achieved distinction at all, in 
their callings, had they been kept out of the 
workshop until at or near their manhood. Too 
much education might have marred their fortunes 
for life. 

In mechanical and other trades, it is the edu- 
cation of the workshop, and. not the education of 
the schools, that is most required. 

Teaching by the rule of thumb, as some call it, 
or rather by manipulation and practical applica- 
tion, is more needed by the mechanic and artisan 
at this day than theoretical science. 

The most distinguished men now engaged as 
masters in the industrial arts are not from 
amongst the graduates of Universities or High 
Schools, and I fear that they will never be found, 
as a general rule, with those who have won high 
scholastic honors. Polytechnic schools, and such 
workshops as are sometimes found in colleges, 
can never make the first-class practical workman. 

If you will scan the wide field of the mechanic, 
the engineer, and the manufacturer, you will find, 
with but few exceptions, that at the present mo- 
ment the ruling minds are from the class of the 
early and persistent toilers in the workshop, and 



66 

it seems necessary, for developing the mind in 
practical things, that this kind of early training, 
this rough and tumble sort of discipline, must 
be encountered at first, to prepare the man for 
the better and higher work thereafter. 

Ask those who are engaged in making im- 
provements in machinery, and from whose labors 
the world is now so largely benefited, how much 
they depend upon the higher and more abstract 
branches of science. They may have learned in 
early life a smattering of mathematics only to be 
forgotten, but, when they need abstract calcula- 
tions or elaborately finished drawings, they get 
others to do them. Their time is worth too much 
for that. 

And, again, in the use of a material like iron ; 
the theorist boasts, over his apparently unlearned 
competitor, that his calculations are made to a 
decimal, but the former has not yet learned that 
there are hidden blow-holes in cast iron, and hid- 
den defects in other material, as well as other 
most important influences not calculable, that, if 
not allowed for, will set at naught all these nice 
calculations, and his work will be thus rendered 
worthless. An intuitive idea of proportion comes 
from practice in the workshop, which cannot be 
learned in the schools. 

There is much that bars and hinders the learner, 
and a full supply of skilled labor is now a most 
crying want. Let us not keep the lad who must 
earn his own living out of the workshop by keep- 
ing him too long at school, thereby losing valu- 



67 

able time in acquiring a kind of knowledge that 
he seldom or never can use. 

As in the past so it will be in the future, the 
bright boy and the brighter man will fill the best 
places as managers and masters. Mediocrity and 
stupidity will find their level, and they will con- 
tinue to lament that they never had a chance. 

The Chairman then called upon Rev. C. W. 
Shields, D.D., Professor in the College of New 
Jersey, and representing the Faculty. 

Dr. Shields. I came from Princeton to-day, 
sir, expecting the silent enjoyment of viewing 
this beautiful building, and also the intellectual 
entertainment which was afforded this morning ; 
but of this part of the programme I had no 
knowledge. I am very glad, however, to have the 
opportunity, which you have so unexpectedly and 
so kindly afforded, of thanking you, in the name 
of the President and Faculty of the College of 
New Jersey, for your courteous invitation to be 
here to-day. More would have been glad to avail 
themselves of this invitation if their college 
duties had permitted. I beg to assure you, sir, 
that that old institution, its elder sister in the sis- 
terhood of colleges, takes the liveliest and most 
cordial interest in the prosperity of the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania. These two great institu- 
tions, as we learn from the eloquent Memorial 
Address this morning, have during all their his- 
tory never maintained any other relations than 



68 

those of good neighborhood and generous rivalry. 
Some of the names which are most illustrious in 
your own history are also to be found in the cata- 
logue of the graduates and professors of Nassau 
Hall. And the erection of such a building as 
this is a subject of rejoicing not only to us, but 
to all the colleges of the land, to every friend of 
learning and liberal education. Notwithstand- 
ing what is often said in these times, and in many 
cases justly said, in regard to the waste of money 
on stone and mortar, yet an institution like this, 
one which has a history and which has an assured 
future, owes it to itself that it should have a 
worthy visible embodiment before the public. 
This elegant edifice, especially that beautiful 
chapel, with its memorial windows, will itself 
exercise an educating influence over the students 
who are gathered within its walls ; and the whole 
building will stand as a monument to connect 
the present with former generations, and with 
coming generations. 

Colleges are among the most indestructible 
forms of social organization that exist; and where 
they have long existed it is surely but right that 
the material embodiment which they present to 
the public eye should be in keeping with their 
usefulness, and with their traditions, and with 
their prospects. 

The opportunity which has been kindly afforded 
me of viewing the rooms in this edifice has been 
a great gratification. I know of nothing that 
can compare with it for the purposes for which it 



69 

is intended ; and I am truly rejoiced to be able 
to say, in behalf of the college that I happen to 
represent this evening, that we are glad to wit- 
ness the prosperity of this institution. And I 
beg to add, in concluding, my own personal 
gratification as a former resident of Philadelphia, 
and for more than fifteen years a member of one 
of the learned professions of the city, at the signs 
of growth and progress. I am glad to see that 
the University is keeping pace with the growth 
of the city, and that this Faculty of Arts, with 
its new sister Faculty of Science, is not falling 
behind the older and more distinguished faculties 
which have given this University such a world- 
wide renown. May its prosperity in the future 
be equal to that which it has enjoyed in the past! 
(Great applause.) 



SPEECH OF EX-MAYOR FOX. 

The Chairman. Gentlemen, the Trustees of 
the University feel that they owe, to one who re- 
cently occupied the highest municipal position in 
the city, some tribute of their gratitude for his 
aid in promoting the erection of this building. 
He participated in the ceremonies attending the 
laying of the corner-stone, and he has taken since 
that time a deep interest in the progress of the 
work and in the welfare of that which was set in 
motion. I call upon the Hon. Daniel M. Fox. 
(Applause.) 



70 

Hon. Daniel M. Fox responded in the follow- 
ing words : — 

Mr. Chairman, I rejoice to-day very much in 
being present. I have had really a very happy 
afternoon. The picture presented to me of this 
magnificent pile, these spacious halls, the large 
gathering in the chapel and the speeches made 
there, seems to me to be sufficient for one day. 
I expected this evening to have the pleasure of 
listening to others rather than that I should be 
called upon. I am glad to have the opportunity 
of being here, however, and to say that I have 
listened with interest and satisfaction to the his- 
tory of this institution as given to us by some of 
the eloquent gentlemen this afternoon. With 
that history, with the associations surrounding 
the University of Pennsylvania, with this wonder- 
ful and spacious accommodation for students, 
with Faculties now complete in every department 
of liberal instruction, and supported by such 
means of moral power as I see around me to- 
night, who can doubt the success of this institu- 
tion and the brilliancy with which it shall perform 
the great work expected of it ? As a citizen of 
Philadelphia, I should ask for it no better friends 
than these respectable and influential gentlemen 
who have evidently gathered here to-night to 
testify by their presence the interest they feel 
in the University by their recognition of the 
ample provision made here for the present and 
the generations that are to come. 

It ought to be a proud day, and especially to 



71 

us of Philadelphia. This is the great institution 
of this part of our country. "We ought all to be 
glad that it has its home in our own dear city? 
and that it has been planted just here. I am 
satisfied that the judgment which located the 
buildings west of the Schuylkill was the best 
judgment, and time as it goes on will confirm it. 
I believe the day will come — it may not be in 
our time, but it will come — when all the public 
institutions of learning and of benevolence in 
Philadelphia will be located west of the river, as 
they ought to be, away from the turmoil and 
bustle of the business portion of the city; and it 
seems to me that this has been a step in advance 
in that direction. The very presence of this in- 
stitution here will invite and induce others, per- 
haps not of like importance, for there are not 
many equal to it, but others with great public 
objects, to come west of the river also. 

You, sir, were kind enough to say, and to flatter 
me in saying, that I had something to do with 
the location of the institution at this place, whil st 
I occupied a public position. I can only say, sir, 
it happened in my time. (Laughter and applause.) 

The Chairman then called upon Rev. Dr. 
Goodwin", formerly Provost of the University. 

Dr. Goodwin, after referring to the pleasant 
recollections of his former relations with the 
Trustees and Faculty, went on to say : — 

Dr. Goodwin. We have heard to-day of the 
past, an illustrious, magnificent past; and now 



72 

we have that before us which leads us to look 
forward to the future. May I not say, Mr. Chair- 
man, that a more illustrious, more magnificent, 
and more glorious future is before this University 
than all that lies in the past? And it is some 
satisfaction to me to feel that I mav remain, 
though connected with the past, yet still survi- 
ving in the present, at least a link in some mea- 
sure connecting that illustrious past with the 
still more illustrious future. And I may say to 
these young men who have been connected with 
the University during the last ten or twelve years 
— those who have graduated or have entered the 
University between the years 1860 and 1871 — 
that, as they look back upon the past and look 
forward to the future, there is much to stimulate 
them to do well their work in life ; and I say to 
you, Mr. Chairman, what I have said to one of 
them this evening, that I trust those young men 
who have not yet had time to come forward to the 
front will yet give a good account of themselves. 

Mr. Chairman, I said we have heard of the 
illustrious past, and we think of the glorious 
future. It is a magnificent thought and a gratifi- 
cation that few men can have in their lives. A 
new era for the University now begins. ISTow 
we may say : " Magnus db integro saeclorum nas- 
citurordo;" and now: " Incipient magni procedere 
mentes-" and they will go on until the great ends 
of this University are more and more fully ac- 
complished. 

But, Mr. Chairman, I understand that one more 



73 

thing is wanting, and only one thing is not want- 
ing ; and before I sit down I wish to say to the 
gentlemen of the city who may be here present, 
more or less interested in the University, one 
thing is lacking — more funds. They will be fur- 
nished. But I have to say one other thing to 
these good friends of the University: they need 
not hope or expect that they will finish this work 
of giving by giving once. So surely as this 
University lives, and prospers, and grows, it will 
need more and more. An institution like this 
that asks for nothing is making little progress. 
A University, this University, like the daughters 
of the horse-leech, will say — will never cease to 
say — "give," "give." But, sir, like the fairest 
of the fair daughters of Job, Keren-happuch — 
cornucopise — the University will be an overflow- 
ing source of blessing, and of beauty, and honor, 
and glory, and light, and power, and knowledge, 
to all around. Nay, more and better, the Uni- 
versity will be like that attribute of mercy which 
Portia eulogizes, which "blesses him that gives 
and him that takes ;" blessing the giver in convey- 
ing the multiplied benefits of his gifts to gene- 
ration after generation of happy recipients. 

May the University of Pennsylvania always be 
able, with more pride than Cornelia, to point to 
"her jewels ;" and may she never cease to be "a 
joyful mother of children!" (Great applause.) 

Theodore Cuyler, Esq., was then called 
upon. 



74 

Mr. Cuyler. — Mr. Chairman, for myself and 
for you, too, and for those whom I see here, I am 
afraid I must express regret that your eye lighted 
upon me. However, sir, I will acknowledge 
your courtesy, and endeayor by avoiding much 
speaking not to abuse it. 

It is thirty years and more since I left the 
classic shades of this old University ; and now to 
come back, foot-worn and weary in the pathway 
of life, to meet again with old college friends, to 
lay again together the embers of old college 
friendship and strive to blow them into a flame, 
is in some sense a delightful task and in others a 
very painful one. It is painful, because when I 
look around I scarce see familiar faces' any more. 
All those who occupied the chairs of Professors 
in this University when I had the honor of being 
a student in it, I think without an exception, 
have passed away and gone to their reward. 
Dr. Ludlow, the noble Provost of the institution 
in the days when I was a student, I followed to 
his grave in a neighboring city some years ago. 
Dr. Wylie, our admirable instructor in the 
classics, thorough, perfect, unsurpassed proba- 
bly as an instructor in this country, rests from 
his labors. The gentle and refined Professor 
Courtenay, and the accomplished scholar, Pro- 
fessor Vethake, who succeeded him, have passed 
away. Alexander Dallas Bache, whom you knew 
and loved and under whose instructions I sat, is 
in his grave. And last of all, the noblest, purest, 
and most refined scholar with whom I ever had 



75 

the pleasure of association, Henry Reed, sleeps 
in the blue Atlantic. 

I think, sir, I have covered the whole list of 
Professors here under whose instruction I sat; 
not one survives. And then, when I pass from the 
instructors and look around for my classmates, 
those bright-faced, happy youths with whom I 
met daily for so many years, some of them are in 
their graves, some of them are adorning the po- 
sitions they occupy in life, all of them hirsute, 
gray, with faces wrinkled with the cares and 
duties and responsibilities of life, so altered from 
what they w^ere when they wore the smiling faces 
I was accustomed to meet that I look at them as 
if they were almost strangers. 

So you can well understand that I feel sad 
when I come here and look around to-night and 
see what changes have taken place. Why, the 
very old family roof itself is gone ; the old halls 
where I was accustomed to go, in which I was 
accustomed to be instructed, have disappeared, or 
rather, they have been replaced by a grander 
and nobler structure — far, very far grander and 
nobler than that to which I was accustomed to 
go. But the associations are wanting; the 
memories are gone ; and I look around and see 
nothing scarcely that reminds me of what I once 
knew and once felt when I was a student in the 
University. But yet, sir, for all that, I am glad 
it is gone, and I congratulate you from the 
bottom of my heart on the change that has taken 
place. Other students through long generations 



76 

will throng the halls of this noble building which 
you have erected here ; they will have memories 
and associations connected with it ; and for a 
long time to come, for generations, nay I hope 
for centuries to come, the old institution trans- 
planted to this place will grow, increase, and 
flourish — I trust for all time. (Great applause.) 
• I thank you, sir, for the courtesy which called 
upon me, and regret that I have detained you so 
long. 

Samuel Dickson, Esq., spoke on behalf of 
the Alumni. 

Mr. Chairman, very unexpectedly called upon 
in this manner, I can only say that, in common 
with all the Alumni, I have taken a deep interest 
in the University since graduating, and that we 
have all rejoiced in the erection of this edifice, 
and that the successful completion of this work 
would make it seem possible that that ideal which 
we have had before us, and to realize which for 
many years there seemed to be no effort made, 
may yet be accomplished. It has seemed to us 
that there was no reason why this University 
should not be a great and splendid institution. 
There has been an idea to some extent with the 
people of Philadelphia and with the people of 
this country that any college in a large city could 
not succeed. It is not so in Europe. The Uni- 
versities of Berlin and of Paris have been the 
leading institutions of Europe. There is no 



77 

reason why the citizens of Philadelphia, taking 
a proper interest in this University, if they can 
feel that it is a successful competitor with other 
institutions in this country, should not send their 
sons here to be educated, as well as to Yale or 
Harvard or Princeton. And one means whereby 
that end will be accomplished, perhaps, will be 
for the Alumni of the University to be made to 
take a deeper interest in the institution itself. 
I believe that heretofore there has not been as 
much unity of feeling among the Alumni as 
there should be; the Alumni Society has not been 
a very successful organization ; but in the future 
Ave have reason to hope that there will be a change. 
The French proverb says, " nothing succeeds 
like success ;" and the prospects of the Uni- 
versity now are such that the Alumni of the 
University will feel a new and greater pride in 
the institution, and I think there is every reason 
to hope that they will take a deeper interest in 
it, and that they will co-operate with the efforts 
of the Trustees and of the Faculty to make it 
what it should be. 

On behalf of the Alumni, so far as it would 
be proper for me to speak for them, I certainly 
feel it a privilege to express our acknowledgments 
to the Trustees for their efforts in putting up 
this building and in securing the endowment for 
the University, and they have, I think, the cor- 
dial good-will and cordial s}mipathy of all the 
Alumni. (Great applause.) 



78 

The Chairman then called upon Colemaist 
Sellers, Esq., President of the Franklin Institute. 

Mr. Sellers. Mr. Chairman, it is impossible 
for me to express in fitting terms the feelings ex- 
cited within me at the connection of the name of 
the Franklin Institute with that of this Univer- 
sity. I heard to-day that exceedingly interesting 
description of the beautiful windows that adorn 
your chapel. Prominent among those windows 
is that which is intended as a memorial of Frank- 
lin. In the matter of education, Franklin stood 
preeminently forward in this country; and the 
Franklin Institute has endeavored through its 
whole course since its origin to educate the me- 
chanics of the city of Philadelphia. All con- 
nected with that Institute have felt the need of 
some place where those who desired to succeed 
as mechanics should have, what some of us too 
much lacked, the means of obtaining a liberal 
education. 

I have heard this evening the remarks of my 
friend, Mr. Harrison, and I must say that I feel 
constrained to differ with him in some respects 
with regard to the kind of instruction that me- 
chanics should receive. There are now through- 
out this country many eminent men who are 
prominent as mechanics. If you inquire into 
their career, you will find, in all probability, that 
they had but a simple common-school education ; 
but my word for it, sir, they have, every one of 
them, regretted that they had not the means of 
obtaining knowledge that is now offered by this 



79 

noble institution. (Applause.) I myself have 
felt this deeply. Leaving school at the early age 
of fifteen to work upon a farm, and then finding 
my way as best I could into the workshop, all 
the time I could spare has been devoted to ac- 
quiring in after-life that knowledge the founda- 
tion of which should have been given to me when 
I was young. I see in my own children — I think 
of it every day — that what is wanted is some 
means to make those who are to be the leading 
mechanics of the country cultivated, well-edu- 
cated men (applause) ; make them, not as I am, 
afraid to address an audience like this, but able 
to come forward and feel that they are speaking 
properly, at least, their mother-tongue. 

Now, it is natural for all mechanics to think 
of that which produces a result in the light of a 
machine ; they feel and know, that, when a need 
exists for the production of a certain machine, it is 
usually created. Pardon me, sir, for speaking of 
this great University of Pennsylvania as a mechan- 
ism, the object of which is to shape, to mould, 
minds into usefulness. There has been a need of 
this very machine, considered as a means of educa- 
tion; and it has been created not entirely new, but 
to the old parts new movements have been added 
to meet the requirements of the times. I see in it 
something far better than the so-called technical 
institutions of the country. I see science walking 
hand in hand with art. I notice that those young 
men who come here and enter the scientific course, 
at once feel that they must endeavor to acquire 



80 

something more than mere technical knowledge. 
I find that invariably, while they are anxious to 
acquire the knowledge that will aid them in their 
profession, still they want to listen to the worthy 
Provost in his instruction ; they want to go to those 
Professors who will teach them something beyond 
demonstrations in the particular branches they 
are about to pursue. They feel that, if they can 
acquire that kind of education which will fit them 
to express properly what they know, they will be 
of more use to the community. I must say that 
the educated mechanic needs, beyond all things, 
mathematics as a basis. I never have believed 
in the " rule of thumb." I never have believed 
in that intuitive perception which would enable 
a person to shape a machine without a knowledge 
of the laws that govern matter and regulate its 
durability. For my part I have not got it. I feel 
that, step by step, and cautiously, each part must 
be measured and each part must be adapted to the 
purpose for which it is to be used, by careful ma- 
thematical calculation. I notice now, talking day 
by day to the students who are attending these 
halls, that that kind of information best needed 
for the mechanic is being imparted to them, and 
at the same time I feel that they are getting a 
taste for something which is more beautiful. They 
have awakened in them the poetry of words, of 
art, and of nature ; and I can see, in the instruc- 
tion they receive in the earlier part of their career, 
when they enter as Freshmen, and while their 
studies run parallel, as it were, with the tuition 



81 

imparted to those designed for the learned profes- 
sions, that they there learn what is needed to 
enable them to properly express in language 
what they may afterwards acquire in science. 

I can hardly find words to express the respect 
and esteem I have for this University. I feel 
that it must succeed. I see in it features better 
than in any institution of the kind in the world. 
And I feel confident that the citizens of Philadel- 
phia will come forward promptly to aid the gen- 
tlemen who are so nobly and so diligently exert- 
ing themselves to perfect this great school, and 
give them the means to make it a decided success. 
(Great applause.) 



JOHN F. FEAZEE, LL.D, 



In strange and mournful contrast with the joyful con- 
gratulations which were expressed on all sides on the 
day of the inauguration was the event which saddened 
all hearts on the succeeding day — the sudden death of 
Professor Frazer. He had seemed to be in unusual 
health and spirits during the ceremonies, and on the 
next day had gone to the University to complete the 
arrangement of one of his rooms. While entering his 
cabinet of apparatus he fell dead without a moment's 
warning, his death having been caused by disease of the 
heart. Thus died one whose loss to the University, 
especially at this juncture, is well nigh irreparable. His 
colleagues of the two Faculties stand awe-struck by the 
blow which has deprived them of one who was not only 
the Senior Professor in the University, but also one of 
the most successful teachers of physics in the country ; 
the world of science mourns the loss of one of its most 
brilliant illustrations, while his family can only think of 
him as the kindest and most devoted of husbands and 
fathers. 

It has been thought appropriate to place on record 
here the action of the two Faculties and of the Alumni 
of the University, on the occasion of Professor Frazer's 
death. 



84 

The Faculties of Arts and of Science met in joint 
session at the University, Monday, October 14. 

In the absence of Dr. Stills, occasioned by severe ill- 
ness, Professor Jackson, being called to the chair, stated 
the mournful event which had called them together — • 
the death of the oldest member of the Faculty. 

Professor Allen, LL.D., the next in seniority to Pro- 
fessor Frazer, spoke with much feeling of the loss which 
they had sustained. 

Our deceased colleague, he said, was undoubtedly one of 
those men whom we spontaneously recognize as unique. 
With the liveliest animal spirits, with the keenest en- 
joyment at the same time of out-of-door activity and 
of elegant society, he was always, even at the gayest 
period of his life, an enthusiastic and systematic student. 
His mind was quick in its action and penetration beyond 
example. ~No man ever mastered a subject more rapidly, 
or could explain it more clearly or gracefully to others. 
He had received the most thorough classical training 
under my learned predecessor, the venerable Dr. Wylie, 
and did not merely keep up, but constantly extended, 
his acquaintance with the Greek and Latin authors. In 
some departments of French literature he was also a 
master: As a Professor no man ever performed his 
duties with more alacrity and energy, or with more per- 
fect command of his subjects. His lectures were models. 
To his colleagues he was a delightful companion and a 
friend ever ready to oblige. He was one of those who 
attract and charm by an irresistible fascination. "While 
brilliant in society, and chivalrous in his deportment 
towards women, he attached to himself, in the bonds 
of solid friendship, many whose friendship it was an 
honor to possess ; these he never neglected or forgot, 
and they will never cease to cherish his memory. 

Pev. Professor Krauth, D.D., spoke of his brief ac- 
quaintance with the deceased as inspiring him with the 



85 

largest respect for his range of thought and study, and 
his character as a thoughtful and serious man. He had 
been struck especially with the thorough manliness of 
Professor Frazer's character. All the world knew where 
to find him, and where he stood on every question. He 
was especially gratified to find that Professor Frazer 
heartily rejected many current scientific views, which 
he himself regarded as loose and unsound. 

Professor Lesley, Dean of the Faculty of Science, 
spoke of the scientific life of Professor Frazer as recorded 
in the Journal of the Franklin Institute, a life of un- 
wearied industry and patient thoroughness of research. 
He was not a brilliant discoverer, but he mastered the 
labors and writings of every class that bore on his own 
work, reading omnivorously in standard and periodical 
literature, and profiting largely by his thorough mathe- 
matical training, and his knowledge of French and Ger- 
man. He grasped science in its vast historical develop- 
ment, holding on with tenacity against mere innovations 
to the assured results of the past, and yet ever ready to 
admit the accuracy of new views and the superiority of 
new formulae. In this historical study of the subject 
he was a fanatic for truth and righteousness. He spared 
no pretender, and acknowledged no lines of nation or 
party in his zeal to secure to the real discoverer and 
inventor the honor that was his due. The conscien- 
tiousness with which he discharged his duties here left 
him no time for the fresh researches and the public 
appearances, which would have added so much to his 
reputation, but he only sacrificed fame to usefulness. 
May his memory bind us more closely to each other. 

After a few remarks by other professors, the follow- 
ing resolutions, offered by Professor Allen, were seconded 
and adopted : — 

Resolved, That, as a mark of respect for the memory 
of our deceased colleague, the exercises of the Univer- 



sity be suspended until the day after the funeral cere- 
monies. 

Resolved, That the members of the Faculties of Arts 
and of Science attend the funeral in a body, and wear 
the customary badge of mourning for thirty days. 

Resolved, That the chair of our deceased colleague, in 
the chapel, be draped in mourning for the remainder of 
the present term. 

Resolved, That the following minute be entered upon 
the records of the respective Faculties, and that it be 
communicated to \\\% family of the deceased, with the 
assurance of our sincere condolence with them in the 
great loss they have sustained: a The Faculties of Arts 
and of Science of the University of Pennsylvania have 
learned with the deepest regret of the sudden death of 
their colleague, Professor J. F. Frazer, LL.D., and desire 
to record their appreciation of the remarkable accom- 
plishments of the deceased in science and in literature, 
and of the extraordinary services which he rendered to 
the University during the more than twenty-eight years 
of his professorship, as well as to the cause of sound 
learning and of wholesome and manly discipline. Gur 
close and intimate relations to the deceased inspired us 
with the liveliest regard for him as a scholar and a gen- 
tleman, and we deeply feel his loss when we recall his 
unmeasured devotion to the duties of his department, 
his zeal for the interests of the University and its 
students, and his keen insight and practical wisdom in 
all matters of business. "We unite with the scientific 
men of the whole land in deploring the sudden removal 
of a teacher and a master mind in the department of 
physical science." 



87 



A special meeting of the Society of the Alumni was 
held October 15, 1872, in the Chapel of the University, 
to take action upon the death of Professor Jno. F. Fra- 
zer, LL.D., of the Class of 1830 ; Vice-President Rev. 
Jno. "W. Faires, D.D., in the chair. 

The Chairman stated the object of the meeting, and 
spoke of the deceased, whom he had known for many 
years. He narrated many incidents of the early life of 
Professor Frazer, showing the early development of 
those great qualities which characterized his after life. , 

Dr. John Ashhurst, Jr., offered the annexed resolu- 
tions, which were unanimously adopted. 

Thos. A. Biddle, Esq., seconded the resolutions in a 
speech highly eulogistic of Professor Frazer, and was 
followed, in similar remarks, by the Rev. Dr. James 
Clark (a classmate of Professor Frazer), Geo. D. Budd, 
Esq., Geo. Harding, Esq., Alfred Stille, M.D., and the 
Rev. Dr. T. W. J. Wylie. 

The Society also resolved to erect in the Chapel of the 
University a memorial of Professor Frazer, and the Chair- 
man was instructed to appoint a committee of five to 
carry out the resolution. 

The following gentlemen were appointed members of 
the committee: T. A. Biddle, Esq., Rev. J. W. Robins, 
John Ashhurst, Jr., M.D., Rev. T. W. J. "Wylie, D.D., 
I. Minis Hays, M.D. 

Resolutions of the Alumni. 

Resolved, That, by the death of our lamented friend 
and associate, Professor John F. Frazer, LL.D., the 
University of Pennsylvania has been at once deprived 
of one of her most eminent sons and of one of her most 
distinguished and successful teachers. 

Resolved, That, as Alumni of the University, we feel 



j-IBRA RY OF CONGRESS 

029 918 703 2 



most sensibly that by this sad event both she and we 
have sustained a loss which is well nigh irreparable. 

Resolved, That, as a teacher and as a man of science, 
Professor Frazer stood alike pre-eminent, as well by his 
brilliant natural abilities as by his profound learning 
and his great and diversified intellectual and philosophi- 
cal acquirements. 

Resolved, That, by his personal example, by the gene- 
rous kindness of his disposition, by his high sense of 
honor, by his hearty love and enthusiastic admiration 
for what was noble and right, and by his manly abhor- 
rence of whatever was base and mean, Professor Frazer 
exercised over the minds of his students, and of all 
with whom he came in contact, an influence as excellent 
as it was powerful and enduring. 

Resolved, That, feeling keenly our own loss of a loved 
and cherished teacher and much valued friend, we can 
thus more sensibly appreciate the yet greater and sadder 
loss sustained by his bereaved family, to whom we beg, 
hereby, to convey the assurance of our most respectful 
and heartfelt sympathy. 

JOHN W. F AIRES, 

Vice-President. 

John G-. E. McElroy, 

Recording Secretary. 



LOFC. 



